Call on Governments for Charter of Universal Responsibilities Formally Delivered to Peru Government

Peru’s representative at the United Nations committed to make the Call on Governments and the proposal for a Charter of Universal Responsibilities known to the highest government authorities for Rio+20 …

During an extended two-hour conversation, Ricardo Jiménez, representing the Ethics & Responsibilities Program, explained the reach and the objectives of this campaign to institute a “third pillar” of the international system of human rights, this one focused on shared and differentiated responsibilities.
Special emphasis was put on the opportunity provided by the Rio+20 Summit of Heads of State next June.

An important campaign in a context of major environmental and health concerns

Ambassador Núñez Melgar congratulated the initiative and saw the campaign as important based on his experience as Peru’s representative at the United Nations, and committed to making it known to the highest government authorities. A follow-up meeting was set prior to Rio+20 to report on these efforts.

The meeting took place in a context of generalized environmental and health concerns among the population of Peru produced by the massive, inexplicable deaths of dozens of dolphins and pelicans, whose corpses are washing up on the Peruvian coasts, including those of Lima, the country’s capital, showing that, facing the serious progression of climate change and of the environmental crisis, there is an urgent need of greater awareness that responsibility has become an ethical and political imperative, a pressing challenge, but also a major opportunity for the states.